‘Today’: Why Craig Melvin Is Absent From Show – His New Venture & More
What To Know
- Craig Melvin was absent from NBC’s Today show following Thanksgiving, with Sheinelle Jones filling in.
- Melvin spent the holiday with his family and is also launching a new candle business, Melvin Made.
- The candle line features scents inspired by Melvin’s family members and will donate the proceeds to various charities.
Today‘s Craig Melvin is enjoying a long weekend after the Thanksgiving holiday.
Melvin was absent from the NBC morning show on Monday, December 1, with Sheinelle Jones filling in for him as Savannah Guthrie‘s coanchor. “Sheinelle is in for Craig, who will be back tomorrow, I think,” Guthrie said at the top of the show’s 8 a.m. hour.
Jones went on to highlight the large crowd that gathered for the show outside on the 30 Rockefeller Center Plaza. “We have a little bit of the spillover left from the Thanksgiving crowd. It’s great to have everybody outside today,” she remarked, to which Guthrie added, “We love these holiday crowds.”
On Monday’s episode of the third hour of Today, Al Roker shared another hilarious reason for Melvin’s absence. “Craig is still recovering from that soul-crushing loss,” he said, referring to how Melvin’s favorite NFL team, the Washington Commanders, lost 27-26 to the Denver Broncos the day prior. “We feel badly for him,” Roker joked.
Melvin’s wife, Lindsay Czarniak, shared a montage of clips from his family’s Thanksgiving celebration via Instagram on Thursday, November 27. “Happy Thanksgiving. Grateful for all of it #thanksgiving #grateful,” she captioned the post, which featured a clip of his family frying their turkey, as well as a family photo of herself and Melvin with their two kids — Delano, 11, and Sybil, 9.
“Love you guys! ❤️❤️❤️,” Jones commented underneath the post. Czarniak replied, “Love you too!”
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In addition to taking time off for the holidays, Melvin also has his hands full with his new candle business, Melvin Made, which launches on Giving Tuesday (Tuesday, December 2). The proceeds from the company’s candle line will go to various charities. Many of the scents are also inspired by Melvin’s own family.
“One of the candle fragrances is actually named after my younger brother Ryan’s late daughter, Jasmine,” he told People in an interview published on Monday, noting that his niece died at the age of 3 from a rare form of Ewing Sarcoma. “It’s a nod to her, but also to him introducing me to the concept of candle making years ago.”
Melvin named another candle “Lindsay” in honor of his wife, whose father is a three-time cancer survivor. “The box is yellow because that’s her favorite color,” he shared. “But it was also the first fragrance that she smelled that I was making, and she was like, ‘Oh, that’s nice. That’s good. What is that?’ So I named it after her.”
Today fans know that candle-making is one of Melvin’s favorite activities. “I bought a kit, and I just started making candles in the kitchen and would give them as gifts and play around with some different fragrances,” he told the outlet. “And my early ones were not very good.”
He went on to share, “This is one of those hobbies that turned into a passion for me and my family because everyone’s affected by cancer. You’d be hard-pressed to find a family not affected. I’m not trying to make money off candles, but what I think I can do is raise money for a variety of charities that are fighting cancer. The goal is to use the platform and the megaphone that we have to do as much good as possible.
Melvin’s products will be available for purchase on www.MelvinMade.com starting Tuesday.
Today, weekdays, 7a/6c, NBC
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